Cthulhu: Twenty Years To Midnight
by PolyDria
Summary: A Man starts to hear voices in his head, all the voices sound distant, but one sounds very close and VERY familiar. Taking place in the fictional port town of Gutyin, Michigan, "Twenty Years To Midnight" is a story about Dreams, monsters , and manipulation.
1. Twenty Songs For A Good Night

Good Morning. A wave of flesh over a drowning garden, a stale sea and fire over charcoal.

'I am death the destroyer of worlds' a doubly inept concept I must say.

"How stout good sport" he said, "See to it I am taken care of when I sleep. Alright, thank you."

Opera. I hear Opera. Wait... OPERA?!?!? The song of my breath is that of sorrow and brevity...

...SING!!!!. Sing a letter to my clean Earth. Please keep singing.-I was sobbing now. "The sound is all I have, please..." I said that bit aloud, but to whom? I know not to whom. The Opera? Opera... Orchestra... Ballet...

Thoughts fade. Just like friends from my silver paradise, they all fade to the Sea. And as I breathe in the soothing sense of sound, as I plead for it to never end, I realize it must. And in that same moment of realization, I... Awaken.


	2. The Weather Dock

Chapter 2

Dreams. We have dreams. You have dreams, I have dreams, my Mother and Grandmother had dreams, thats just the way it is. We as a species think, and so as a thinking species, we think at all times. We think when we are awake, even when we are unconscious believe it or not. But most importantly we think while asleep. that is what dreaming is. And we ALL dream no way around it, whether you remember having a dream or not, you DO have them. Sometimes our brains do us a favor and let us forget our dreams, but not me. Let me just tell you, my dreams are different than the world's dreams, my dreams send a message, unlike anyone else'sdreams. And the messages? the messages are like letters, like someone out there is sending me a letter, they have to write it out, lick the envelope, and buy a stamp for it. but I only receive it in my dreams. It's like the secretary of my mind is receiving and opening it, and knocking on my door to give it to me. and then a voice reads it to me. Who? Who is sending them to me? Who is reading them to me? I sit in my bed every morning trying to pinpoint the voices. Trying to pinpoint HOW I know that these are not normal dreams. I know I will discover it eventually, I just need more...Time.

The dock is always wet. I don't know why, but it's always been that way. It's not that bad though, wet and cold is all I've ever known. In Gtuyin, Michigan, you're either cold and wet or wet and cold, and today-as is normal for most days- I happen to be both, which is always a good thing if you are interested in that sort of thing. I however am not. I've lived on or by the water my whole life, I like the environment, just not the weather conditions.

The market by the dock was uncharacteristically empty, there was not a soul. Even the other shops were unmanned, no one waiting to buy, and no one waiting to sell. What was most strange of all was, no boats, not a single fishing boat in sight, (excluding the 'Weekend Yacht' I live in) I was so confused. At six in the morning on a day of bad catches it was still busy. six-oh-clock in the morning, for most places empty at six is normal, empty at six at the Gtuyin marketplace? Never was there such a thing. The market was never empty. There was always at least one customer here, and there certainly was at least one other shopkeeper. every day I've worked here I've never seen this before. I waited, would anybody else show up? Should I just leave? No, I will wait. I waited what seemed like seven hours. I've lived and worked near this dock for long enough to tell just by the feel of it how long any amount of time is, but any amount of time can seem like any amount of time here in Gtuyin.

My co-worker Klein Zeller -an African-American Man who just turned twenty-nine and looked the part of someone that age- walked up to the stand with his hands in his pocket. He looked at me and nodded a greeting, I nodded back. He looked around at the lack of customers in the market, he said nothing, turned a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degrees, to get a good look around, and with a puzzled look on his face shrugged and went into the back to hang up his coat.

"What's the time" he asked.

"Eight-oh-clock" I said.

After a short pause-

"Don't you have a watch?" I asked.

"Yeah, mine says eight too. Just usually there's more than zero people at eight in the morning, y'know?"

He came out to the front while he said this. He looked at me as the question rolled off his tongue.

I nodded in agreement.

We spent the next few hours pondering silently over why no one had come. Every now and then one of us would start to say something, but we could never finish our sentences. Lots of tired "sighs" and bored shrugs. I was incredibly dumbfounded about this whole thing. The sky was a normal New England gray. The air was cold. The World seemed black and white. The water was perfectly monochrome, the stillness gave me shivers even though I've been here my entire life.

I began to feel very light-headed, as if each shiver was raising my very being to that Boston sky. My eyes were being drawn to the sea. My awareness was fading. How silver. How gray and silky, where am I?


	3. The Void

Chapter 3

I lay just inside the entrance to a large cave, it was wet and dank and the only light came from the entrance of the cave, which was no more than ten feet behind me. I didn't look behind me, but I knew the distance between me and the entrance. I was in a position on the ground in which I appeared to have been pushed into said position. I lay on my hands with my elbows slightly bent. And as for my legs, I had no feeling in them. I lay on my left thigh with my legs outstretched, placed on top of each other, slightly bent at the hip but not by much. I was twisted at the midsection very naturally, but not to say it was comfortable. My abdomen was very much on fire in the metaphorical sense, as I lay in this uncomfortable and numb position. Not to mention how wet and cold I was in this dank environment.

After I'd gathered my thoughts and absorbed my surroundings, I looked in front of myself, and saw a long dark hall to nowhere. Standard for a cave I guess, but I'd never been inside one before. For all I knew, this might not be a cave.

Looking at the vertical abyss in front of me gave me chills, but I couldn't look away from the ever increasing reach of the darkness. A light was shining behind me, when I looked at my hands beneath me, I could see the silvery shine creeping upon the backs of my arms. I looked back at the light, or at least I tried looking back at the light behind me. I couldn't move my head side to side, just up and down. This position I was in, grew evermore uncomfortable as time went by.

The floor began to fill with black water, and slowly as the water started to envelope me, the feeling slowly returned to my legs.

Something shot like a bullet from behind me, past me it went, and hit the darkness,

Drip!

Not five feet from my head. It was like a drop of water falling onto a pond, it rippled and created a metallic ring that sounded throughout this cave.

Drip!

The water continued to rise beneath me, and the drops of water kept shooting from behind me.

Drip!

I tried turning my head to see what caused the dripping water, my head still would not turn. Instead of looking behind me, I studied the pond-like wall in front of me.

Drip!

My legs were no longer numb, so I stood. Now My body would not turn. I started to panic, (subconsciously) my palms were sweaty, my knees and joints were weak as I stood. I felt nauseous, ready to regurgitate, but I didn't.

Drip!

The dark void, er, pond, that I faced, was silently calling me forward, the silver light slowly pushing me into it. As curious as I was about this "pond-wall" I was not very adamant towards touching it.

Drip!

The dripping water kept coming, a drop every other second, like a heart that continually skipped a beat.

Drip!

The rising water was knee level now. The shooting drops rose with the water level, zinging past just above the surface.

"Walk" a voice echoed through the cave.

Drip!

I did not reply.

Drip!

I walked up to the pond-like void, wading through what was now waist height water.

I touched the inverted spring, with a finger tip, and a drop hit it immediately after.

Drip!

I clenched my jaw, I instinctively gripped my wrist and slid it up my arm, as if to roll-up a sleeve I could be wearing. I always did it, even if I was shirtless, which I noticed in that moment, that not only was I shirtless, I was completely naked.

"Touch it!" A sharp voice called. "Touch The Void!"

The heat in my stomach grew exponentially, if I was not of the way submerged I most definitely would have been ablaze.

Drip!

I touched the wall, again, this time sinking my arm up to my elbow in the black liquid. It was cool, not cold though.

The water stopped rising, and after a few moments I realized that no more drops fell.

I pulled my arm out without a second thought, I touched the water around me and scolded my hand for the water around me was now steaming, it was at my chest now.

I touched the water in front of me once more, it splashed out at me like a mild geyser, cooling my steaming body. I shook my head. The water around me was getting hotter now, the heat in my stomach started to expand. I felt the silver light wrap itself around to my front. I took that as a sign that I needed to swallow my fear and walk through the wall, deeper into this "cave."

Near boiling, I walked head first into the wet void.


End file.
